In recent years, the media industry has expanded its horizons beyond traditional analog technologies. Audio, photographs, and even feature films are now being recorded or converted into digital formats. Media systems are available to present digital content to viewers in increasing numbers.
Certain media systems allow clients to request digital content from the media server by name. Just as commercials are interspersed during a movie played on broadcast television, it is desirable to play content unrelated to the original data stream request, such as a commercial, in a pointcast or multicast digital media presentation. For purposes of explanation, the problem of merging unrelated content into a requested digital data stream by a client will be explained in reference to commercials. It should be understood that the unrelated content may be used for any purpose, and is not limited to any particular style, purpose, or format, such as a commercial.
In some media systems, presenting commercials to a client in a digital data stream is performed by storing the commercials in the same binary file as the requested content. Commercials are stored physically in the binary file relative to where they appear in the requested data stream. Every client who requests the binary file would be shown the same commercials at the same point in the data stream.
Alternately, the commercials shown in a digital video presentation can stored in a different binary file as the requested content. Commercials in this case are statically mapped during presentation to the client. For example, a request by a client for a 30 minute episode of “M*A*S*H” might result in the media server streaming the first 10 minutes of the show, followed by a commercial, followed by the next 10 minutes of the show, follow by a commercial, followed by the final 10 minutes of the show. The entire presentation of “M*A*S*H” and the two commercials are delivered to the requesting client in one contiguous data stream. However, the selection of which commercials to intersperse with the requested data stream is done without thought to the identity of the requester. Thus, while the particular commercials inserted into the data stream for two different requests for “M*A*S*H” may differ, there is no guarantee that the commercials are appropriate for the demographics of the requesting audience.
As the commercial popularity of digital media spreads, there will be a growing need to present additional content specifically tailored to the individual or the demographics of the viewer, and which need not be physically stored in sequence as presented to the requester. Accordingly, it would be desirable for a presenter of digital media to generate and present content in response to requests for digital data streams to provide for user-specific customizations and targeted advertising. Further, it would be desirable for a presenter of digital media to allow customization of the viewable content provided by the media server based upon a user's preferences.